Dave Turner Solos Huge Baffin Route

Dave Turner pauses below the seven-pitch headwall on the north face of Broad Peak on Baffin Island. Turner completed a single-push first ascent of the face in a 39-hour round trip from base camp. Photo by Dave Turner.

News Link: Californian Dave Turner capped a 65-day expedition to Sam Ford Fjord on Canada's Baffin Island with a solo, 39-hour, single-push ascent of a 4,750-foot new route on Broad Peak. Turner climbed the elegant north arête and headwall of the 6,000-foot granite-walled mountain, with no bolts and no stop for a bivouac. The route went at VI 5.10 A3 60°. He descended the south ridge and gully, the only previously established route on Broad Peak. In early 2008, Turner soloed the first complete ascent of the east face of Cerro Escudo in Patagonia, a feat that helped earn him the Robert Hicks Bates Award for outstanding young climber from the American Alpine Club. Turner's Baffin trip was supported in part by a Lyman Spitzer Cutting-Edge Award from the AAC.Click here to read the full news story about Turner's Baffin solo. For Turner's first-person account, visit Supertopo.com.Date of Ascent: May 2009Source: Dave Turner